Photo Gallery

Out and about in Malvern Link

Malvern
Link is an area of Malvern, Worcestershire, England, to the north and east
of the town of Great Malvern.

New Year's Day 2013 was sunny so we had a walk around
Malvern Link to get some fresh air and take photographs. So here are some photos
mixed in with memories and snippets of local history which we hope you will
find interesting.

We do not claim to be an authority on the local history
of Malvern Link, so if you would like to find out more it is suggested you
have a look at the trade directories in Malvern
Library.

Malvern Link has changed a fair bit since we came to
Malvern in 1978. It was then a little run down and has since struggled to
survive competition from traders in other parts of Malvern. The footfall is
low and over the last year a large number of shops have become hairdressers;
it is hard to imagine there will be enough business for them all.

We parked at Victoria Park adjacent to the playing fields
and children's play area where the parking is free, and walked down
Pickersleigh Road to the traffic lights Here we turned right and
walked down to the eastern end of Worcester Road, which is the main street.

From about 1830 while the gentry lived, and tourism
began to flourish in Great Malvern, Malvern Link began expanding as
a location for traders, shop-keepers, small businesses and the middle
classes.

The non-conformist Chapel of Lady Huntingdon's Connexion, was the
first church built in Malvern Link about 1837. William Towndrow (1802 -
1896) a local
grocer and draper was instrumental in the building of the chapel which was
replaced by a larger building in 1861.

The 1861 structure still exists and is located by the traffic
lights opposite the turning into Spring Lane (see photo below).

The old chapel is now the Mayflower, a Chinese take-away food outlet.

In 1903 the congregation moved to the United Reformed
Church at the western end of the main street.

Next door to the Mayflower is the Car Clinic which used to be Tyre
Services, a tyre, battery and exhaust outlet (see photo below).

Opposite is a Texaco filling station, from where the
photo below was taken.

If you turn into Spring Lane at the traffic lights you
will find the B&Q DIY store.

When we first came to Malvern the site was
occupied by a Midland Red bus garage.When that closed the site was taken
over by Kwik Save which sold cut price groceries.

(Kwik Save did not have bar code scanners nor were the
goods individually priced so the checkout operators had to remember and key
in the price of each item in the trolley!)

When Kwik Save closed a new
building was erected for FOCUS DIY which moved from a prime position on the
Madford Retail Park (now occupied by Marks and Spencer).

When the FOCUS group went bust in 2011, the site was taken over by B&Q
(which has a large car park).

B&Q offers a 10% discount to the over 60's
on Wednesdays (fill in form for discount card).

Opposite B&Q is the long established hardware store
called Handyman House and if you can't find what you want in one store the
other will probably have it.

Proceeding up the main street from the Texaco filling
station you will pass a house with advertising on the side-wall and a
bricked up front, which clearly once was a shop.

Just beyond is a Lidl
supermarket which has a good car park and sells keenly priced groceries
and many other varied items - a new list of offers every week.

Lidl was built on the site of Richmond Garage.

Sunny Lodge

Across the road you will see the BP Sunny Lodge filling
station.

This occupies the site of a house called Sunny Lodge
built about 1835 for Admiral
John Carter. John Carter (1785 - 1863) joined the Rpyal Navy in 1798. He
served under Nelson and had a distinguished career In 1833 he married Julia
Adery Georges. Between December 1841 and December 1846 Carter was
Superintendent of the Royal Clarence Victualling Yard at Gosport.

In 1861 Sunny Lodge was the home of Captain William Candler and
his wife Emma. The census lists William born about 1799 Yorkshire as
Magistrate, Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Worcestershire, late Royal Navy. He
died 8th April 1865. William was married to Emma Catherine Lechmere, born
1809, daughter of Rev Anthony Lechmere of Hanley Castle.

More buildings

Francis of Malvern nearby, a long established business,
has three retail units in the Link selling carpets, beds and furniture.

Harpers Bazaar is a good source of outdoor clothing and
camping accessories.

Returning
to Pickersleigh Road traffic lights we turned right into Richmond Road and
then left at the far
end to find St Matthias Church (see photo right).

The first Anglican church in Malvern Link was built in
1846, but was replaced by a larger structure in 1881 with generous financial
help from Lord Beachamp of Madresfield Court.

This large church has seating for 800.

In the churchyard we saw the Link Boundary Stone which is thought to have
originally lain at the junction of Pickersleigh Road with the Worcester Road.

This stone originally marked the boundary between the manors of Leigh
Sinton and Powick. It was already old in 1584 when a breathless Elizabethan
gentleman noted it during ‘beating the bounds’. In the Stuart period it
was marked on an estate map as ‘The Old Stone’. The central recess is a
receptacle for coins, perpetuating the very old custom of receiving payment
for the right of passage through the parish. This custom was acknowledged by
mourners, who would rest a coffin on the Link Stone on its way to Leigh from
the Pickersleigh side of The Link, a practice probably not discontinued
until 1845 when St Matthias was consecrated.

We walked
on through the churchyard to an alley-way,
passing the rear of Malvern Link C of E Primary School, that led
into Hampden Road and then back to the main street.

Near the junction is a BT Broadband Infinity equipment
cabinet connecting Internet users to the exchange via fibre optic cable.

This was installed in 2012 and offers home and business
users a faster connection.

Opposite near the corner of Hampden Road and the main
street is the Energize Health and Fitness Centre (see photo
below).

Do you know the history of the 'Energize' building?

The photo below shows the view looking north back down Hampden Road towards St Matthias.

On the corner of Hampden Road and the main street is a
sculpture known as the Link
Stone Fountain which needs some maintenance.

At the western end of the main street you will find Colstons Bakery
opposite the pelican crossing, HSBC bank and the Post Office.

Next
to the post office is the United Reformed Church (URC). The photo on the
right shows the exterior viewed from the small car park at the rear. The
foundation stone on the front of the church records that,

This stone was laid June 18th 1903

To the Glory of God

For peace on earth and

Good Will towards Men

The URC often holds
a service for shoppers on
Friday mornings, followed by tea or coffee.

A Fellowship
Luncheon on the 4th Thursday of each month is held in the Church Hall,
starting at 12 noon. Entrance is by donation. A Bible story and some singing
is part of the event, which is open to anyone.

The
photo below shows the front entrance with its fine wooden doors.

Next to the URC there is a turning into Picklersleigh
Avenue which runs alongside the common before bearing left and coming out opposite the famous
Malvern Motor Company
works in Pickersleigh Road. See photo of an old three wheeler sports
car, which was photographed outside the Abbey Hotel in Great
Malvern.

Malvern Link shops end at the URC, but we walked further
up the Worcester Road to the new hospital.

To the right there is a turning into Howsell Road which
leads to Malvern Blinds at the old fire station, an electrical wholesaler
and Travis Perkins (builders merchant). On the right of the junction with
Howsell Road is a block of
(sheltered) apartments for retired people known as Santler Court, built by
McCArthy and Stone in 2004 on the site of Brooklyn Motors. When we came to
Malvern the garage was a Ford dealership known as Bowman and Acock and before that it had been owned by
the Morgan Motor Company.

Thomas Charles Santler
an inventor and engineer of Malvern Link built one of the earliest motor vehicles
and had a workshop nearby.

The land on the opposite side of the junction had been used for storing
vans and motor cars but in 2011 another block of apartments for retired
people was built known as Elgar Lodge (see photo below).

Malvern Link railway station lies a few yards beyond Elgar Lodge and is
accessible both from Howsell Road and the main Worcester Road which passes over the
railway line. The photo below shows the station as seen from Worcester Road.

In
the middle of the picture (above) is a block of flats known as Aspen Court standing
on the site of the Malvern Link Railway Hotel which was built about 1867.
The hotel was a
grandiose red brick building. In 1873 it became the Link (preparatory)
School which closed in 1965; the old building being demolished about 1968.

Malvern fire station is situated next to the railway
station. It has a distinctive sloping roof (see photo below).

Malvern Community Hospital (see below), which opened in 2011, stands
next to the fire station. It was built on the site of Fern Lodge a large
house once owned by Henry
F S Morgan founder of the Morgan Motor Company.

Latterly Fern Lodge was the home of Seaford Court
Preparatory School.

Nearby
there is a Victorian pillar box and across the road, on the edge of Malvern
Link Common, is a drinking
fountain. This was built in 1900 by the Women's Temperance Association,
as a supply of pure spring water presumably to discourage the drinking of
alcohol.

Just beyond the hospital is Morgan Court, a block of
residential apartments for the elderly built by McCArthy and Stone in 1988.
The building may have been named after the Morgan family who once lived
next door.

By this time we were getting rather chilly, so that was
the end of our New Year's Day perambulation - home for a warming lunch!

5. Weaver Cora and Osborne Bruce, Aqua Malvernensis, a history and
topography of the springs, spouts, fountains and wells of the Malverns, and
the development of the public water supply, printed by Aldine Press, 1994.